Towards improving sterile insect technique: Exposure to orange oil compounds increases sexual signalling and longevity in Ceratitis capitata males of the Vienna 8 GSS.

Towards improving sterile insect technique: Exposure to orange oil compounds increases sexual signalling and longevity in Ceratitis capitata males of the Vienna 8 GSS.

Blog Article

The Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly), Ceratitis capitata, is a notorious insect pest causing huge economic Leveling Foot losses worldwide.The sterile insect technique (SIT) is widely used for its control.Using sexually mature sterilized males of the Vienna 8 (tsl) strain in the laboratory, we explored whether exposure of males to citrus compounds (separately or in a mixture) affects their sexual behaviour and if nutritional conditions and age Vision and Eye Health modulate those effects.

Exposed males exhibited increased sexual signalling compared to unexposed ones, particularly when fed a rich adult diet.Interestingly, and for the first time reported in medfly, exposure of Vienna 8 males to a mixture of citrus compounds increases longevity under poor adult diet conditions.We discuss the possible associated mechanisms and provide some practical implications of our results towards improving the effectiveness of SIT.